Mamihlapinatapei
by oddlyfamiliar
Summary: Mamihlapinatapei - Yagan (indigenous language of Tierra del Fuego) – "The wordless, yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start." Four times in which JJ and Hotch showered together, where absolutely nothing happened, honest, and one time in which something definitely did.


**Present day, aka: the plane incident**

The atmosphere on the jet is refreshingly upbeat; their latest case is over, with as good an ending as they can usually get, and everyone is clearly in a good mood because of it. Aaron sits back in his chair and looks around at the team. Reid, next to Aaron at the table, is laughing at Garcia's antics on the laptop as she tries to encourage the whole team to go out to celebrate with her after they land. Prentiss and JJ, sitting opposite Reid and himself respectively, are both joining in with the laughter, although he can see that they both look tired, so he doubts Garcia will win either of them over. Morgan, leaning on the arm of the sofa across the aisle, is grinning at Garcia, and Aaron would bet good money that he'll follow wherever she wants to go tonight. Rossi is sitting on the sofa, smiling along with the team, but observing them all just as Aaron is.

His attention refocuses back on the conversation when he hears Garcia suggest they all go out to a karaoke bar, because there's no way he's getting dragged into performing. "I don't sing," he says, but when JJ makes a loud scoffing noise he concedes, "except in the shower."

"Yeah, badly," JJ mutters under her breath, which makes Aaron huff a laugh, so it takes him a second to realize that everyone else, including Garcia, is utterly silent and staring at them both.

The silence is broken when Garcia, in an odd mix of giddy and patient, teases, "JJ… why do you know that Hotch sings, _badly_ , in the shower?" and _oh shit_ , Aaron thinks. He watches, oddly detached from the situation, as JJ flushes bright red and opens and closes her mouth, doing an excellent impersonation of a goldfish.

"Wait, no, it's not how it sounds," she tries to reason, but clearly Garcia isn't done having fun at their expense yet.

"Well, it sounds to me like you're saying you've seen Hotch naked in the shower… so, are you trying to say that you _haven't_ seen Hotch naked in the shower?"

JJ immediately denies it and, well, that's not exactly the truth. Aaron has no idea why he does it; he could let this whole thing drop, JJ could explain that there's nothing going on and that'd be the end of it. Except there's a very, _very_ dry side to his humor that not many of the team realize, and so he goes for it; he mimicks JJ's scoffing noise from before, and then has to cover his mouth to hide his grin at the glare JJ swings at him.

Everyone else has gone silent again until Garcia, clearly stunned, practically screeches, "Wait, you really _have_ seen Hotch naked in the shower?!"

JJ is still flushed and glaring at him, and Aaron is trying desperately hard not to find it adorable. She only addresses her response to him. "Okay a, that wasn't technically _in_ the shower, and b, I apologised and you agreed that we were never going to mention it again!"

Prentiss turns slightly in her chair so that she's facing JJ, and barely holds back her glee at the situation. "Okay you really need to start explaining why you've seen Hotch in the shower."

JJ makes a noise like a dying whale and buries her flaming face into her crossed arms on the table before speaking quickly, her words muffled and running into each other in an attempt to get this over with. "The first time was like six weeks ago when the women's locker room at work was closed because of that burst pipe. It was really late at night and I really needed to do my workout because I knew I'd just skip it if I went home, and I figured it was late enough that there wouldn't be anyone else around, so I just used the men's locker room, only it turned out that Hotch was still there, and he walked in when I was halfway through my shower. We both laughed it off and it was fine and a non-issue and _nothing happened_." By the end of the explanation, JJ has lifted her head from her arms, but still can't quite look anyone in the eye. Aaron is very careful not to make eye contact with anyone either; he doesn't know what they'd be able to profile from his expression.

Morgan raises an eyebrow. "The _first_ time? This has happened more than once?"

JJ pauses for a second and then buries her face again. He can just hear her quiet, muffled "shit".

All eyes swing to him for an explanation, but Hotch has no idea what to say, so he shrugs his shoulders. "Apparently the water pressure is better in ours than in the women's locker room?"

Reid, obviously delighted to not be the focus of the team's teasing for once, asks, deliberately leading, "JJ, how many times have you and Hotch worked up a sweat together late at night with no one else around, and then showered together?"

JJ is still refusing to raise her head and look at anyone, so all Aaron can hear is a muffled, "I hate you all and I'm never speaking to any of you ever again."

Thankfully the rest of the team are interrupted from teasing either of them further by the pilot's announcement that they're about to start their landing. Everyone else busies themselves packing their things away, but Aaron catches JJ's eyes and gives her a soft, private smile, mouths "sorry" to her.

She glares at him, but the smile tugging at her lips gives her away. "You will be," she mouths back.

 **Six weeks ago, aka: the first time**

By the time JJ manages to get to the gym, it's ridiculously late. She's been staying late at the office pretty much every night this week trying to make her way through her massive pile of consults in the hope that she can free up her weekend to spend the entire time with Henry. He's been at Will's for the last two weeks, and JJ misses her son like crazy. Intellectually, she knows that it's a good thing for Henry to spend time with his dad, but not seeing him for so long is killing her. Will is going to be dropping him off after she finishes work tomorrow night, so JJ knows that this is her last chance to squeeze in a workout before she's going to be using all her energy keeping up with her three year old.

Except when she arrives at the door to the women's locker room, there's a sign saying that it's closed due to a burst pipe. Of course.

JJ gently smacks her head against the closed door and tries to decide what to do. She really needs to work out tonight; not only is it her only opportunity for the next few days, she just really needs to work off some of the frustration she's been carrying all day. She tries not to let the cases they review get to her, but sometimes it can all become overwhelming and she really just needs to do something physical to help her move beyond it. Back when things with Will were still good she could have tried getting rid of this energy in the bedroom with him, but that's obviously no longer an option.

She looks around the gym, but can't see anyone nearby. There's no sign that there's anyone still left in this part of the building, and as soon as it occurs to her she already knows that this is a stupid idea, but she could always just sneak in and use the men's locker room if there's no one else around. She hesitates for a second, trying to decide whether or not she's really going to do this, before making up her mind and walking over to knock loudly on the door to the men's locker room. She listens carefully but can't hear any response, and takes that as a sign. Still, she's cautious as she opens the door, just in case, and she calls out a quick hello. Still no response. She walks in, checking carefully for any signs of another person, but comes up empty; it looks like she's the only one here.

JJ is pleasantly surprised at how clean the men's locker room is. She didn't exactly expect it to be as bad as a high school locker room, but still, it's a nice surprise. She can see the rows of lockers running through the room, separating it into smaller pockets of changing areas, and then beyond that a smaller section where she assumes the showers are. Still wary of being caught in here, she heads over to a section of lockers that's far away from the doors, just in case anyone does suddenly come in; at least then they're less likely to stumble upon her. She changes into her workout clothes quickly, and puts everything else into a locker, before heading into the gym and starting her usual routine.

An hour later, during which time she still hasn't seen another soul enter the gym, she finishes her cool down and makes her way back into the locker room. JJ knows she's been incredibly lucky not to have been caught, and that she should probably just change clothes and get out of there, but she really doesn't want to get sweat all over everything, and she's not looking forward to driving home like this.

Which means she'll need to shower in here, too.

She glances at her watch and sees that it's almost 10pm now, and if she hasn't seen anyone for over an hour, it's highly unlikely that someone will suddenly get a burning desire to use the men's locker room this late on a Thursday night. So she grabs her toiletries and shower speaker from her bag before stripping down and wrapping a towel around her waist. She hurries over to the showers and sees that they're set out slightly differently than she's used to; there are two long rows of back-to-back cubicles spanning the width of the room, with the walls coming up around JJ's shoulder height. When they're full, everyone must have to stare up at the ceiling in order to avoid inadvertently making eye contact, and JJ has a hilarious moment where she imagines her team in here, awkwardly showering together, but she firmly puts a stop to it. She knows that given the opportunity, her mind will immediately conjure up the thought of a wet, soapy Hotch, and she's been promising herself that she's not going to do that anymore. She's been single for the last few months, he's single, and they're closer than ever, and yet he's still given her no indication that he has any interest in her, other than being friends. So she's no longer allowing herself to have any hope, and that includes fantasies.

She moves over to the back row of cubicles, the ones facing the entrance to the showers, and picks the first cubicle on the end. From here, she can see if anyone comes in, but all they'll be able to see is her head and shoulders. She gets the shower running to warm up while she sets up her speaker and loops the towel over the hook hanging just outside the cubicle door. As soon as the water gets warm, she steps fully in and ducks her head under the spray, tapping her foot to the music drifting out of the speaker. She knows it's an odd habit to have, but it had been a family rule while she was growing up; everyone had a maximum of three songs in which to use the shower. Not only did it help to conserve water, it helped to keep arguments about who was taking the longest in the bathroom to a minimum. She had tried to break the habit a few years ago, but JJ had found that she really missed it; she doesn't get much time to herself during the day, so listening to music in the shower stayed as part of her "me-time" ritual.

JJ is almost done washing the shampoo out of her hair as the second song kicks in, and she's just starting to sing along when she registers a noise coming from the entrance to the showers. She spins around and opens her eyes, only to see a startled Hotch standing there, sweaty and half-naked, with just a towel around his waist.

"JJ?" Hotch is clearly confused, and he has an adorably comical moment where she can tell that he's trying to work out if he somehow accidentally walked into the women's locker room. He's looking pretty much everywhere but at her.

She turns the volume on her music down before speaking up. "You're not in the wrong locker room, don't worry," she says, trying hard to look him in the eye without letting her gaze wander down his torso, "there's been some kind of burst pipe situation in the women's, and I really needed to have my workout, which meant I really needed to have a shower. I honestly thought that there was no one else still around, sorry."

He nods, still looking slightly bewildered. "That makes sense, I guess. I, er, was out running." She watches him hesitate a second before he gestures over his shoulder towards the lockers. "I'll leave you to it."

She realizes that he's going to leave, and now she feels awkward. "No, Hotch, it's okay; grab your shower, I don't wanna inconvenience you. As long as you don't mind the music, I don't mind you in here." He still seems conflicted for a moment, and the fact that he obviously doesn't want her to be uncomfortable makes her heart twist in fondness for a split second. She watches as he nods, mostly to himself, and then moves towards a cubicle on the front row, at the opposite end to her, literally as far away as he can get.

He turns on his shower, and she watches out of the corner of her eye as he gets under the spray. He keeps his eyes on the back wall, and JJ grasps for anything to say to break the tension. "The water pressure in here is way better than in ours. I'm pretty sure that's discriminatory behavior, Hotch," she teases.

He glances quickly at her and raises an eyebrow, before he seems to catch himself and his gaze skitters away. "I'll have to try the women's locker room next time to compare," he deadpans.

JJ can't hold in her laugh at that, and she tries to quell the flutter of heat she feels at the thought of him showering with her again. Silence falls back over them both, but it's not as awkward as before, so JJ counts it as a win. She tries desperately not to look over at him, but her eyes keep getting drawn to the water running down his shoulders. He's taller than she is, obviously, so the wall only comes up to his upper chest, and she knew he was pretty athletic, but she's never seen him without a shirt on before. It shouldn't be this surprising how well built he is; he's not ripped like Morgan is, but he's clearly strong and his muscles are toned. She's aware of how much slimmer he's been since the team has all gotten back together, and she wonders if it's all the running he's apparently been doing. She can barely see his scars from this angle, but she knows they're there, and she can tell that he's self-conscious about them. JJ tries not to imagine what she could do to help him get over that.

She's washing the conditioner out of her hair when she realizes that her gaze is caught on his arms; the water is running rivulets down his skin, highlighting his biceps as he runs his fingers through his hair. She can't help but imagine running her fingertips up his wet, slick skin, over his shoulders and down his chest, and _woah_ , JJ needs to stop this, because she's getting seriously worked up. She's always had a crush on him, who the hell wouldn't, but things have been so good between them lately that she's been feeling more than just turned on by him. She really doesn't want her silly crush to develop any further, because there's obviously nothing she can do about it. They could never try to pursue a relationship while he's her direct supervisor, and he's never given her any indication that he could see her as something more than colleagues and friends. Which means she definitely needs to stop gawking at him, and finish her shower quickly.

JJ rinses her hair through one more time, then turns her shower and music off and grabs her towel, running it over her hair to gently squeeze out the excess water first, before quickly drying her skin. She wraps it around herself and grabs all of her things so she can get back to the lockers as quickly as possible without accidentally giving Hotch a free show. It's only as she goes to walk around the shower cubicles that she realizes that Hotch has finished his shower too, and is about to leave the showers with just his towel around his waist.

They end up both meeting at the entrance to the lockers at the same time, and she laughs, trying to break the wet, naked tension. "Please ignore this," she gestures at herself, "tangled wet hair is not my best look."

Hotch just looks at her and says, "JJ, you never look anything less than stunning."

JJ can feel herself flush as a flash of heat bolts through her, and she's almost uncomfortably aware of how wet she just got at his words. She has no idea what to say or where to look; he still has a few drops of water running down his chest, and JJ desperately tries not to watch how far down they fall before they get caught on his towel.

She realizes that they've been paused at the entrance to the locker room for a weirdly long time now, so she vaguely gestures towards her locker and mutters something about getting dressed. An earthquake could probably hit right now, and it still wouldn't shake her out of this daze. She needs to retreat to safety before she does something stupid and irreversible, like leaping into his arms and asking him to fuck her until she cries from exhaustion.

JJ makes the mistake of meeting his gaze, and she has no idea what he sees in her expression, but she can see a slight flush in his cheeks. He nods awkwardly at her, before gesturing to the opposite side of the room, obviously where his own locker is, and saying a soft goodbye to her.

She finds herself in front of her locker with no memory of walking up to it, and tries to snap herself out of this stupor. JJ finishes drying and gets dressed quickly, hyper-aware that Hotch is still somewhere in the room. She has an idle fantasy about him walking over to her, picking her up, and taking her on the bench right in the middle of the locker room, but she rushes to put a stop to her brain before it completely runs away from her. Hotch is her boss, and he's not interested. She shouldn't be thinking about him like this.

JJ gathers all of her things and stuffs them into her bag before racing to the door, yelling a quick goodbye to Hotch and leaving before she can hear any response.

 **Present day, aka: an interrogation**

JJ walks quickly towards her desk, still avoiding eye contact with everyone, and watches out of the corner of her eye as Hotch heads up to his office, obviously about to get started on some of his paperwork despite how late it is. She assumes that he's trying to clear as much as possible so that he can spend the entire weekend with Jack, and JJ fully intends on doing the same with her own paperwork. Henry has been staying with Will while they were out of town on this case, and she can't wait to have him all to herself this weekend; she definitely doesn't want to have to focus on her paperwork instead.

Except she should have known that there was no way that Emily and Penelope were going to let this whole thing go; she can see them marching over towards her with purpose. She doesn't even have the chance to say anything before Emily takes the files out of her hand, locks them in JJ's desk, and grabs JJ's go bag along with her own, before Penelope links her arms with JJ's and she's being basically frogmarched out of the bullpen.

She's about to ask what's happening, or maybe even call for Morgan or Reid to help stop this, when Penelope turns to grin at the boys as they're watching JJ being kidnapped. "Night my loves, we're going for a drink and possibly an interrogation, see you all tomorrow!"

JJ is escorted to Emily's car and placed in the passenger seat, and she can feel them both staring at her, waiting for her to explain the whole story with Hotch, but JJ is not going to give into them that easily. There's nothing going on with Hotch, but it sounds a little… odd. She gets that. And she has a really bad feeling that they're going to see right through her. That they'll figure out how much Hotch means to her, that she's dying to take things a step further with him, but she's terrified he doesn't feel the same way. She's been dealing with these feelings for a long time now, longer than she can really admit, and she's not sure if she's ready for other people to know. Except, well, the cat might already be half out of the bag.

They drive in silence until they get to their usual local bar, and Emily and Penelope deposit JJ on a bar stool at a high table while they go to get some drinks. JJ watches as they whisper to each other, obviously planning their attack, and she wonders fleetingly if this is how their unsubs feel when they're waiting in an interrogation room. Before she's ready, they're both back at the table with all of their drinks, and are staring at her.

"What?" JJ tries to delay, even though she knows it's futile.

Penelope just raises an eyebrow. "We'll get to the whole shower thing in general later, but first of all we need to address the fact that you've apparently _seen Hotch naked_?"

Emily takes a sip of her drink before smirking. "We definitely need to hear this story. In detail."

JJ sighs, and knows there's no way they're going to drop this. "You're making it a much bigger deal than it really is, honestly. The shower thing has only ever happened three times, and it was because of stupidly bizarre reasons. Coincidences, really. We both prefer to work out later at night, but only on nights where we don't need to rush back to the kids -" and JJ could kick herself at that wording when she sees the significant look that they give each other when she refers to Henry and Jack as 'the kids', "- and there keeps on being these really stupid reasons why the women's locker room is closed which, really, we should be looking into what's going on there, because-"

"JJ, stop trying to derail the story, and tell us about Hotch in all his glory before we die of old age," Emily cuts in, and JJ groans before practically gulping down some of her wine to help her get through this.

"Fine. Anyway, I sometimes end up using the men's locker room instead because there's never anyone else around at that time of night, only the universe seems to enjoy playing cruel tricks on me, because the three times I've done that have also happened to be the three times that Hotch had been out running, and then he walks in on me in the men's showers. So, we end up showering at the same time, and I know it sounds odd, but there's nothing inappropriate about it -" JJ winces and takes another gulp of wine to try to cover it, because the whole thing is so clearly inappropriate, "- and there's no, y'know, _showering together_ or anything, but the second time it happened, about three weeks ago, we were getting dried off and dressed and I accidentally dropped my hairbrush and just automatically turned to pick it up and Hotch was naked. So I saw him. Naked. That's it; nothing else to tell."

Penelope just raises an eyebrow again. "Uh, there's everything else to tell! Are we talking full frontal naked, here?"

JJ flushes bright red at that, and realizes that she's just going to have to tell them everything. In a way, this is a good thing. She's desperately needed to talk to someone about this, because it's been playing on a loop in her mind since it happened. "He had his back to me mostly, and he was towelling his hair, so there was… nothing in the way of the view? Except he wasn't standing straight on; he was turned to the side a little, at an angle, so I may have been able to see a slight -" JJ pauses again and kind of helplessly gestures her hand in a slight vertical curve in the air, "- shadow?"

Emily can clearly barely contain her laughter. "And does he… cast a long shadow?"

JJ just bites her lip and raises an eyebrow significantly, and Em and Pen burst into delighted shouts and laughter. JJ feels herself blush even more. "I can't believe I just told you that. He's got an amazing ass, too." JJ covers her hands with her face, "God, I can't believe I just told you _that_."

"So, how long have you known you want to jump the boss-man, Jay?" Pen teases, obviously not realizing exactly how close to home she's hit.

 _Fuck it_ , JJ thinks, staring hard at her drink in order to avoid looking at her friends. She's suddenly tired of hiding how she feels. "Um, pretty much since the first time I ever saw him?"

The deafening silence coming from across the table forces her to look up at them. They're both clearly shocked that she's admitted it, but neither seems entirely _surprised_ by the news.

"JJ, are you in love with him?" Emily asks, gently.

JJ doesn't say anything, just looks down at her drink again. She knows there's no way to deny it; it's written all across her face. But she doesn't know if she's quite ready to admit that much out loud yet.

"Oh my god," Emily whispers, and JJ feels terrified suddenly. It's too much, having her feelings laid bare in front of her friends, and she needs to work out how to stop this all from crashing down around her.

"There's nothing going on between us, really. He's obviously not interested in me the same way, so I've never done anything about it. And I really need you both not to tell anyone, okay?" JJ begs desperately. She can't have Hotch find out how she feels; it'll ruin whatever friendship they've been able to build over the years, and she can't lose that right now.

"Of course we won't tell anyone sweetie, but why on earth do you think he's not interested in you?" Pen asks, rubbing JJ's shoulder to try to soothe her.

JJ just rolls her eyes. "He's never given me even the slightest indication that he sees me as anything other than a friend and co-worker, Pen. It's okay; I'm not expecting that we'll run off into the sunset, get married, and have more kids. I can get over it, I just need some time." Except JJ catches the look that they share, and realizes that maybe she protested a little too much, and might have accidentally told them exactly what she really does want.

Emily puts her drink down and looks JJ in the eye. "Jay, I don't know about Pen, but I've never seen Hotch smile half as much at anyone else, except his son, than he does with you. You're the only person I've ever seen who can literally just _look_ at him, and he'll do whatever he can to make you happy. When you were the team's media liaison, how many times were you able to convince him to take on a case that he'd never have considered otherwise?" JJ tries to interrupt, to say that all of things don't really _mean_ anything, other than him valuing her as a co-worker, but Emily is clearly on a roll now and doesn't stop. "And, y'know, back when I first started, Morgan and Reid used to jokingly call the two of you the mom and dad of the team? It always seemed like you had your own special little bubble that the rest of us were never part of. Even though you're a profiler now with us, it still feels like that sometimes; especially after the secrets you both kept in order to keep me safe."

Garcia chimes in before JJ can say anything. "And he gets super protective over you too, y'know? I mean, he does to some extent with all of us, but he's so much worse with you. Apparently, when Rossi came back to the BAU, he made some kind of comment to Hotch about how hot you were, and Hotch shut him down so fast that Rossi's head was nearly spinning." She raises an eyebrow at JJ. "He says that that's why he very rarely flirts with you; he doesn't want to risk pissing off Hotch."

There's a few seconds of silence while JJ tries to process what they've said. "Wait, how do you even know that?" she asks Pen.

Penelope just laughs. "Rossi told me himself. After we eventually got over the awkwardness of him finding me and Kevin having some post-sex shower fun, he asked me if anything had ever happened between you and Hotch. I think he was trying to work out why Hotch had only ever warned him off you, and not anyone else."

JJ pauses, then realizes something. "Wait, wasn't Hotch still married when Rossi came back?"

"I'm pretty sure he was," Emily butts in. "I mean, we all know that Hotch would never have cheated on Haley, _ever_ , but that doesn't mean that he didn't feel something for you. Even back then. Although I'm kinda wishing that he'd warned Rossi off me too, because it took a lot of threats for him to stop hitting on me every two seconds…"

Pen laughs loudly at that. "And finally, I have _definitely_ caught Hotch staring at your ass on more than one occasion. He tried to play it off like he wasn't, but I know what I saw. And there was a _lot_ of appreciation there, trust me."

JJ wants to believe them, she really does, but what if they're wrong? She can feel a tiny prickle of hope starting to unfurl in her heart, but she just doesn't dare give in to it.

 **Three weeks ago, aka: the second time**

It's been three weeks since Aaron walked into the men's locker room and found JJ wet, naked, and singing. He had been worried that things would become awkward between them, but he's been pleasantly surprised to find that, with the exception of the first excruciatingly uncomfortable ten minutes of the next day, they were back to normal around each other. He still keeps catching himself thinking about her; the way the water ran down her neck as she tilted her head back to wash her hair, the way the muscles in her upper back shifted as she ran her fingers across her scalp. He can't stop imagining her in that tiny towel, barely containing her breasts and stopping way too high up her thighs.

He had tried not to look at her too much, knowing that the towel he had around his waist wouldn't be able to hide his reaction, but he'd given into temptation and glanced at her once or twice. He'd nearly ruined everything though when he'd slipped and pointed out how stunningly beautiful she always is; the flush that had spread down her chest had been devastatingly tempting. It had taken everything he had not to press his lips to her skin, to feel how warm and soft it must have been. And there's no way he'd have been able to keep hold of her friendship then. She's never given him any indication that she could possibly return the feelings he has for her, and he can't stomach the thought of losing her if she was to discover them.

Since then, he's avoided running straight after work, but it's been three weeks now and he misses his usual route. It's highly unlikely that a similar situation could ever occur again, so he decides it's probably safe to return. He heads into the locker room to get changed into his running gear, his body automatically choosing a locker near where JJ had disappeared towards last time because apparently he's secretly a masochist, before setting off on his normal run.

Aaron has always preferred running at the end of the day, even if it's just a quick and simple route, although he often has to settle with an early morning run in order to make sure his plans don't get derailed by an urgent case. He feels oddly more settled when running at night though; it always helps him work out the frustrations of the day, and given the amount of bureaucratic hoops he's had to jump through over the last few days, he's definitely overdue a late run.

After he's completed a four mile loop up near the reservoir, he heads back into the locker room to shower before he heads home. Jack should already be asleep, so he doesn't want to risk waking him by showering at home; he'll be awake early enough in the morning as it is. He's been so excited about his school trip tomorrow, that Aaron wishes he could have been able to commit to being a chaperone. Thankfully, Jessica had been able to get some time off work and was free to help out, so she's staying over tonight in order to help get Jack ready on time for their early departure in the morning

Aaron's so lost in thought that it takes him a moment to realize that he can hear music coming from the showers. He feels a twinge of excitement at the possibility that it could be JJ again; he's certainly never heard any guys playing music in here before, but he dismisses the thought quickly. The odds of it actually being her must be astronomical; if Reid were here he could probably cite an actual number. He quickly gets out of his running clothes, wraps a towel around his waist, and grabs his toiletries, before heading across to the showers.

Apparently the odds weren't impossible enough; he spots JJ immediately, in the same cubicle as before, presumably so she can see if anyone enters, although she has her eyes closed and head tilted back right now as she lets the hot water cascade down her neck. He realizes that he's staring at about the same time she realizes that he's there. She looks startled but oddly happy to see him, and he's not sure how to interpret that.

He has a moment of awareness that he's been standing looking at her for too long, and he realizes that he needs to say something. "Did I end up in the women's locker room again?" he teases gently.

JJ laughs, a short, loud burst, and _god_ he has such a stupid swell of pride surge in his chest at the fact that he made her laugh like that. It's been a long time since he's seen her look so happy. She grins wide at him. "Yeah, you should really be careful about that; you could get into trouble if someone catches you," she teases back, and he has a second to wonder whether or not they're flirting before he remembers that he's standing half naked in front of her.

Aaron gestures towards the showers and smiles. "Do you mind if I join you?" He catches the flush on her cheeks and realizes suddenly how his words sounded, but his brain goes blank as to how to make it clear he wasn't hitting on her, when in reality that's all he can think about doing right now.

Thankfully, JJ just grins at him and raises her bare, wet arm above the cubicle wall to gesture at the showers. "Sure, pick whichever you like."

He hesitates for a split second; the one he'd like is the one she's currently in. Instead, he moves towards the cubicle he was in the last time this happened. That way, he's as far away from her as he can get, which is considerably safer. "So, why are you in here again? I'd have thought most women would want to avoid the men's locker room?"

He catches JJ's look of frustration out of the corner of his eye. "Apparently there's been some kind of problem with the repair work after that pipe burst a few weeks ago? They thought they'd fixed it, but…" she trails off with a shrug.

Aaron doesn't really know what to say to her, and he needs to stop looking over in her direction before he gets caught leering. Instead, he just nods and resolves to shower as quickly as possible so he can get out of her way, because the longer he stays in such close proximity to her while they're both naked, the more tenuous his control is.

Except, of course, the universe is clearly out to get him, because they both find themselves at the entrance to the showers, wet and barely covered by their towels, at the same time. Again. Aaron doesn't know what he's done to deserve this kind of punishment.

He clears his throat slightly and takes a step towards his locker, before realizing that she's taken a step in the same direction. She looks amused for a second and gestures towards his locker. "We're both over here, right?"

Aaron nods, then speaks quickly. "If you give me a second, I'll grab my things and get out of your way."

JJ catches his arm, and he tries to ignore how hard his heart is pounding at such a simple touch. "It's okay Hotch, you really don't have to. We're both adults; I'm fairly sure we can get dressed without causing an international incident."

Aaron is frozen for a second. On the one hand, if he protests too much, she might get suspicious about his real feelings, and then their friendship would be ruined. On the other, JJ's warm hand on his skin is already making it hard for him to think. If he has to get changed knowing that she's just a few feet away from him, _naked_ , he's not sure he'll be able to get through the experience without embarrassing himself.

In the end, his mouth makes the decision before his brain can, and he hears himself stutter out an okay. JJ drops her hand from his arm and smiles, before heading towards her locker. He tries not to watch her ass as she walks in front of him, but he's only human, and it's either that or stare at her bare legs; either way he's going to get himself in trouble if his body doesn't calm down quickly. Thankfully, she seems to be heading to a locker opposite his, not next to, so at least they'll have their backs to each other through this.

Aaron pauses at his locker, very deliberately not listening to the sounds JJ makes as she starts moving things around, and he reaches in to deposit his toiletries for a second. He's concentrating so hard on not paying attention to her, that he automatically starts his routine for drying off without thinking of the consequences. He pulls the towel from around his waist and quickly runs it over his head, drying his hair, before he registers the sound of something solid and wooden hitting the tile of the locker room floor, quickly followed by a strangled gasp.

He drops the towel back down to his waist again, hopefully covering everything important, and very deliberately does not turn his head towards JJ. "You okay?" he checks.

There's a moment's pause before he hears something hit a locker, then a muffled "uh huh". He turns ever so slightly to see JJ with her forehead against a locker, her towel still wrapped around her, and a hairbrush in her hand. It only takes him a second to put it all together and realize what must have happened; she dropped the brush, automatically picked it up, and… saw him naked.

Aaron can feel the flush across his chest, and doesn't know how he feels about that. His body isn't bad, especially for a guy his age, and she's already seen him with just a towel on, but he's not exactly built like Morgan, so he feels a little self-conscious. At this angle though she probably only got a quick glimpse of his ass, which isn't _too_ scandalous at least. He knows she's most likely embarrassed right now, so he tries to break the tension by teasing her a little, knowing that it's the only way she'll be able to look him in the eye again. "JJ… anything you wanna admit?"

Her words come out as one long rush of air. "Oh god, I'm so sorry Hotch, I accidentally dropped my brush and reached to grab it and kinda saw you naked, please forgive me and we'll never, ever mention this again."

He can't help but laugh, and he tries to ignore the fact that his dick keeps twitching in interest, and then he has to try even harder to not blurt out that turnabout is fair play and he should get to see her naked too. Instead, he reassures her. "Don't worry, JJ. It's already forgotten."

Aaron doesn't say anything else; he knows that she's embarrassed but that she'll recover faster if they just move on now. They both carry on getting changed, and he tries to recite as much of the constitution as he can remember in order to not listen to the sounds of her dressing. It's only a few moments later that he hears a locker slam shut behind him, and then JJ practically races towards the door like something's on fire, barely even glancing at him as she mutters a quick goodnight.

He sighs, rests his head against his own locker, and hopes that everything will still be okay between them in the morning.

 **Present day, aka: an interrogation, part deux**

Aaron is in his office, desperately trying to focus long enough to get some work done, but his mind keeps drifting. He'd seen Prentiss and Garcia escort JJ from the bullpen earlier, and he can't stop wondering what they're talking about. He knows it's only a matter of time before Dave appears at Aaron's door to begin his own interrogation so he should try to get as much paperwork done as possible before he gets interrupted, but he just can't keep his focus for more than thirty seconds at a time.

As though he'd been reading Aaron's mind, Dave appears at the doorway with a bottle of Scotch, two glasses, and a smirk. He walks in, sits down at the other side of Aaron's desk, pours the two drinks, and then just looks at him.

Aaron knows what's coming. He's expected as much since they got off the plane. But he's not going to make this easy on Dave at all. So they both just drink and look at each other. Eventually, Dave breaks first. "So, you've been showering with young JJ. In secret. After all the times you've talked to me about the fraternization rules, I think I get to gloat a little bit about this."

Aaron sighs into his drink. "Except there's nothing going on with me and JJ."

Dave raises an eyebrow, perceptive as ever. "But you'd like there to be something going on?"

Aaron considers whether he should keep trying to deny it, or whether he should take the opportunity and ask for advice. He decides to try a delicate balance between the two. "I'm her boss."

Dave just laughs at him. "So that's a yes, then?"

So much for not fully admitting anything. Aaron gives in. "Yes."

"You have good taste at least," Dave smirks as he takes another sip, and Aaron just glares at him. "Sorry, I forgot how possessive you are over her for a second there."

"I'm not possessive over-" Aaron starts, before he's cut off by Dave's very pointed look. He runs a hand over his face before putting his drink down on the desk. "Have I been completely transparent about my feelings for her? Does everyone know?"

Dave pauses for a second. "I think maybe everyone has _considered_ it at one point or another, except JJ herself, of course. She's obviously too busy trying to hide her own feelings for you to realize how far gone you are on her."

"She doesn't have feelings for me, Dave. She's never seen me in that way," Aaron denies.

Dave just raises an eyebrow at him. "Are you kidding me?" He watches as Dave puts his own glass down on the desk, clearly winding up to make a point. "Last Thursday, we were all sitting around that table," he gestures across the bullpen towards the conference room, "working late. You took off your jacket and rolled up your shirt sleeves, and I genuinely thought that JJ was going to throw herself across the room at you and ride you like a pony. Don't tell me she doesn't see you that way."

Aaron can feel himself flush at Dave's words, and he has a fleeting moment of hope before reality kicks in. "Then why hasn't she ever said anything? We're both single right now; there's nothing to stop us, except for work. When have you ever known JJ to _not_ go for something if she really wanted it?"

"When she was _fucking terrified_ , Aaron. She's too busy mooning over you to realize that you feel the same way about her. Trust me, it's painfully obvious from an outsider's perspective that you're both stupid about each other, but apparently you're both too stubborn to recognize it. You're going to have to make the first move if you want something to happen."

 _God_ , Aaron desperately wants something to happen, but there are so many complications. "And then what happens to the team? I know how much this unit, these people, mean to her. You know the bureau fraternization rules better than anyone. If we ever wanted to actually be together, you know that they'd split the team up; there's no way they'd allow a supervisor to be in a relationship with a direct report."

"Maybe," Dave acknowledges. "But if that wasn't an issue, would there be anything left to stop you?"

Aaron pauses for a second, before deciding to lay his cards on the table. "If that wasn't an issue, if JJ really did have feelings for me too, and if both Jack and Henry were happy? Then there wouldn't be anything in this world capable of stopping me from being with her."

Dave looks a little stunned at the force of Aaron's words, then he nods to himself. "Okay then; let me see what I can do about the red tape." Then he gets up, grabs the bottle of Scotch and his own glass, and goes to leave.

Surprised at the sudden end to their talk, Aaron takes a second to react. "Wait, Dave, what are you going to do?"

But Dave ignores him and keeps walking.

 **One week ago, aka: the third time**

JJ can _not_ stop thinking about seeing Hotch naked. It's been two weeks, and it's all she can picture when she's home alone in bed. It's gotten to the point where she can barely look at him without wanting to just _do_ something. Yesterday, she almost had to excuse herself to go and splash cold water on her face after just watching him roll his damn shirtsleeves up.

She desperately needs a long workout to try to get rid of some of the sexual frustration she's been feeling, but she's been stuck waiting until the women's locker room is open again. There's absolutely no way she can face the possibility of a half-naked and sweaty Hotch right now without literally throwing herself at him. Even though the odds are pretty slim that he'd just happen to walk in on her, _again_ , the fact that it's already happened twice is pretty damning proof that the universe is enjoying fucking with her.

She grabs her gym bag from under her desk, before turning off the small light next to her computer. There's no one else left in the bullpen, and the offices above look dark, so she hopes the rest of the building is just as quiet, and that she'll have the gym all to herself. She heads down to the locker room, which she knows was absolutely, positively, definitely open earlier in the day… only to find an 'out of order' sign hanging on the door.

JJ swears softly to herself before trying the door, just in case. It nudges open a crack, just enough for the strong smell of paint to waft out; obviously they're finishing up the re-repairs. Sighing, she looks towards the men's locker room and resigns herself to using it and hoping that Hotch has either already left for the night without saying anything, or that he's out running and won't be back any time soon. She gets changed quickly and runs through her shortened work out, just enough to burn off some of her energy, before heading back into the locker room to quickly shower and get out of there.

She's barely one song in before Hotch is suddenly standing in front of the showers again, with only a far too small towel wrapped around his hips. JJ practically has to grab hold of the shower rail to stop herself from moving towards him and riding him until he cries from exhaustion. She definitely feels like _she_ could cry, but mostly from frustration.

JJ turns her music down a little. "Hey," she says, then huffs a quiet laugh at how dumbfounded he looks.

"Hey," he says back, softly. She can see him try to shake of the absurdity of the situation as he walks over to the same cubicle he's used the last two times this has happened, before turning on the shower and getting in. He glances at her quickly, before trying to make small talk. "So, the women's locker room's still not ready?"

"Apparently they've decided that now is the time to re-paint. I'm assuming it's because they thought no one would need to use it at this time, but clearly they were wrong," JJ gestures to herself as proof.

He smiles wryly at her, and she feels the familiar twist in her stomach whenever she sees him smile. She watches out of the corner of her eye as he runs his fingers through his hair, causing it to stick up ridiculously, and her heart feels like it's going to beat out of her chest with the force of the affection she feels towards him. This is getting ridiculous. She doesn't know which she wants more right now: to join him in his cubicle, sink to her knees, and take him into her mouth; or to run her fingers through his wet hair while he wraps his arms around her, and they stare into each other's eyes.

Just as she thinks she's about to lose her mind, JJ registers that the song has changed and Hotch is quietly singing along to it, clearly not paying attention to what he's doing. And dear god, the man can _not_ sing, yet apparently even that's adorable on him. She can't hold back her laugh, although she has no idea which of them she's laughing at.

Hotch just looks at her. "What?"

The innocent expression on his face is too much, and JJ can feel how ridiculously big her grin is. She must look like an idiot, but Hotch is smiling back at her with that big, devastating smile that he so rarely uses, and her heart just stops for a second.

"I had no idea you knew this song," she teases, enjoying the slight flush across his cheeks.

"There's a lot you don't know about me, JJ."

"Oh, I don't know, I've seen you naked after all," and _crap_ , she really shouldn't have mentioned that again, because she can feel the shiver run through her body at the memory.

He just raises an eyebrow. "I thought we weren't supposed to mention that?"

"Well, you were there so you already know. But we will definitely never mention it to anyone else," she flirts back, and oh god _she's flirting_. She needs to stop, because there's no way this will end where she so desperately wants it to. She realizes that she's finished with her shower, so she quickly turns the spray off and grabs her towel. Barely glancing in his direction, JJ heads towards the lockers. "I'd best get going; see you tomorrow."

JJ practically runs back to her locker, getting dried and dressed in record time. She hears the other shower turn off, but Hotch doesn't appear, so she presumes his locker is elsewhere this time. She grabs all of her things and stuffs it all into her gym bag, before she practically runs from the locker room, throwing a quick goodbye over her shoulder.

She doesn't wait for his response.

 **Present day, aka: an interlude**

Spencer looks across his desk towards Morgan and catches his eye. They'd both watched JJ being kidnapped by Garcia and Prentiss earlier, and now Rossi has just walked into Hotch's office with what looks like a bottle of Scotch. As much as his team loves to tease him for being oblivious about personal relationships, even he can tell that there's something more going on than was revealed on the plane earlier.

He clears his throat before turning to fully face Morgan. "So, JJ and Hotch?"

Morgan just raises an eyebrow at him. "Apparently."

"Huh," he responds, before locking his paperwork in his drawer, grabbing his go bag, and standing up. "Well, I'll see you in the morning, then."

Spencer hears Morgan laugh softly at him, before he follows him out to the elevators. Whatever's going on with JJ and Hotch can wait until tomorrow.

 **One week later, aka: the fourth time**

It's been a week since Dave left Aaron's office claiming that he'd see what he could do to remove some of the obstacles stopping Aaron from telling JJ how he really feels. Dave refuses to explain what he meant by that, or what he's planning to do, and the stress is nearly killing Aaron. He still doesn't know if JJ is truly interested in him, or if she even would want a romantic relationship with him, and he doesn't want Dave to overstep and do something that could cause irreparable damage to Aaron's friendship with her, or to the team as a whole. Of course, a small part of him is rebelliously rooting for Dave, hoping that he might be able to work something out that would leave Aaron free to pursue JJ. But he's trying hard not to let himself get too attached to the idea, in case nothing happens.

The team has only just returned from another case; so soon after their previous one is definitely unusual, but at least there had been no accidental revelations on the plane ride home this time. Aaron is desperate to go for a run, though; the frustration levels had been high with this case, and although they'd managed to catch the unsub before he'd been able to kill his most recent victim, JJ had gotten injured in the process. She'd been thrown hard against a wall, but had still been able to get back up and disarm the unsub before the situation escalated any further. Aaron had insisted that the paramedics on scene check her out, but apparently there was just some bruising to her back and left shoulder blade. She needed to take it easy for a few days and get it checked out by her own doctor if the pain increased, but seeing her get injured and not being able to do anything about it was causing him some serious frustration. Aaron knows the only way he'll be able to clear his head is by going for a run.

He ends up running his usual route twice, after realizing he's still too worked up to stop after one loop, so he's pretty tired by the time he gets back into the locker room. He wanders over to his locker, changes into his towel, and heads over to the showers. He has a second where he realizes that he's disappointed at the lack of music in the air, even though he knows it was stupid to hope that JJ would have been working out when she's injured. Aaron can hear one of the showers running though, so there's definitely someone else in here.

He rounds the corner and is surprised to see JJ in her usual cubicle with her head fully under the spray, the water cascading down her while she's clearly deep in thought. He speaks up, wants her to realize that she's no longer alone, but she doesn't react at first. He steps further into her line of vision, and smiles gently as she jumps slightly. He watches as she pulls her head out of the spray and pushes her soaked hair out of her face.

"Sorry, I didn't realize you were in here again," he says.

JJ just looks confused for a second, then seems to understand that he's talking about the lack of music. "Oh, yeah," she says, "I wasn't actually planning on working out today, so I don't have my speaker with me. I just needed to get my shoulder warmed up a little before I could think about driving home; it's starting to stiffen up a bit."

Aaron frowns, maybe she's hurt worse than he thought. "You sure you're okay? I can drive you to the hospital if you need it, or I can drive you home?"

"No, honestly, I'll be fine," she smiles at him. "I just needed the hot water to loosen it up a little. I've got some muscle rub for it as well. I'll be fine."

Aaron nods in acceptance and walks over to the furthest cubicle from her again. He's already in the shower before a thought occurs to him. "Is the women's locker room closed again?"

JJ scrunches her nose up slightly, like she does when she's about to admit to doing something she shouldn't have. "No, it's open, but I saw Gina heading in there and thought it might get awkward…" she trails off, but Aaron has no idea why that could be the case; surely it would be less awkward than getting caught in the men's showers?

His confusion must show on his face, because she clarifies. "She and Will started dating a few weeks ago. I'm fine with it; it's just a little weird that he's dating someone I know, that's all." Aaron winces in sympathy; he can imagine how strange that must be.

JJ's only under the water for another minute or so, before he hears her shower turn off. He watches her go out of the corner of his eye, noting that her movements are a little stiffer than usual; he resolves to make sure she gets some rest tomorrow so that she can start to heal. He knows for a fact that she won't take any time for herself. He finishes up his shower quickly, and heads around to his locker to get dried and changed.

Aaron only gets as far as putting on his sweatpants when he hears something drop and then a small cry of pain. He quickly heads around the bank of lockers, hesitating before he rounds the last corner, mindful that JJ might not be dressed, and calls out to her. "You okay?"

He hears a small sigh, followed by a quiet "no".

He calls out again. "Are you dressed?"

Aaron can hear the smile behind her "yes", so he rounds the corner and sees her sat on the bench, her wet hair scooped over her right shoulder, dressed in sweatpants and an oversized t-shirt, already pulled off her left shoulder. It looks as though she was trying to put the muscle rub on her bruised shoulder blade.

"You need a hand?" Aaron offers, before he really thinks this through. He's half naked still, and he's just offered to put his hands all over her skin. It's either the best idea he's ever had, or the very worst.

He can see her eyes catch on his chest, and a slight flush creeps up her neck, but before he can try to make sense of that, she throws him the tube and spins around on the bench, straddling it, so her back is to him. "I can't quite reach properly," she explains.

Aaron straddles the bench behind her, but tries to keep some distance between them. He twists the cap off the tube and looks at her, before realizing that this probably isn't going to work with her t-shirt in the way. "Ah, this might be easier if you move your t-shirt-"

"Oh, yeah, of course," JJ interrupts, and before he can react, she takes her t-shirt off completely, hugging it to her front with her left arm. And just like that, he's confronted with an expanse of skin, unbroken except for her pale blue bra, right the way down to where her sweatpants are tied tight around her hips.

This is definitely still vying for both the best and worst idea he's ever had.

There's so much skin in front of him that it takes a second to get himself under control. JJ is clearly in pain, and judging by the size of the bruise spanning across her shoulder blade and upper back, he's really not surprised. He should be helping her, not thinking about stroking his fingertips across her back to feel how soft her skin is. Aaron squeezes some of the gel out onto his fingers, then gently starts to rub it into the skin just below her upper shoulder; a relatively safe place to start.

JJ flinches at the coldness of the gel, but she relaxes quickly. He tries to be gentle, he really doesn't want to cause her any pain, but he knows that it can help to massage the gel in a little. He presses his thumb harder into her muscles, but stops quickly at the gasp she makes. "You okay?" Aaron asks, his voice rougher than he intended it to sound.

He feels a slight shiver run through her, but she urges him to carry on. "Yeah, it helps, keep going."

Aaron soon realizes that her bra strap is in the way; it's stopping him from being able to rub the gel in properly around her shoulder blade, but he knows it wouldn't be appropriate for him to slide it off her shoulder, no matter how much he wants to.

He decides to ask her instead, softly. "JJ, you might need to move your bra strap so I can properly rub this in."

She just hums under her breath at him, before scooping her hair back over her right shoulder, then reaching one-handed behind her back to unhook her bra completely. He's genuinely stunned; he didn't mean for her to remove it completely, but he can't say a single word to stop her. He has a split second of awe; it took him long enough to work out how to do undo those damn things using two hands and being able to look at it, she just twisted it off single handedly, behind her back, while injured. Aaron watches, mesmerized, as she slides the straps down her arms, keeping her left arm pinned across her front, holding the bra and t-shirt to her chest.

"Is that better?" JJ whispers, and Aaron has to stop his initial response, because he doesn't think that pulling her back between his legs and kissing her is the answer she's looking for.

He chokes out an affirmative, before he has to use the base of his palm to press down against his growing erection, just to relieve the pressure for a second. Aaron shifts slightly on the bench and tries to get himself under control as he squeezes out a little more gel. He returns to rubbing it into her bruise, toeing the line between gentle yet hard enough to be effective. His control is almost shattered when he hears her moan a quiet "harder" at him, and there's nothing on this earth that could prevent him from following her request.

Aaron suddenly registers the feeling of JJ's left knee pressing against the inside of his own, and he realizes that they've both been shifting slightly towards each other on the bench. There's barely an inch separating her ass from his erection; if she moves back any more, she'll be grinding against him. The thought causes him to dig into her muscles a little harder than he intended, but he's startled out of his thoughts by the utterly filthy groan it draws from her throat, and by her reaching out to grab at his right thigh, gripping tight.

There's no way he can move back now without making it obvious, so instead he tries to angle his hips back, tries to override the part of his brain urging himself to push forward against her. He keeps massaging her back, because he has no idea what else to do right now. His brain has shut down, with the exception of every single thought he's ever had about what he'd like to do to her, all crashing through his mind at once. Her fingers squeeze his leg a little tighter, her thumb drifting further down his inner thigh, as he digs his own thumbs into the base of her shoulder blade, pushing up. He's mesmerized as she arches her back in apparent pleasure and gasps his name.

Aaron can feel his dick twitch pathetically at that, at what she might sound like pinned beneath him, and he can feel the second his control snaps; the exact split second when he decides _fuck it_ , and is about to pull her back that final inch towards him, when the shrill sound of her cell phone ringing cuts through the air.

JJ jumps slightly at the sound, but it seems to take her a second to register what it means. She lets go of his thigh quickly and leans forward to grab at her bag, reaching inside to get her cell. Aaron takes the opportunity to slide back a few inches to safety. She glances at the caller ID and mutters under her breath.

She half turns towards him, without looking at him, and is careful to keep her left arm across her chest, preventing her t-shirt and bra from falling. "I'm really sorry, I need to take this. It's Will. He's looking after Henry tonight."

Aaron clears his throat. "Yeah, of course. I'll leave you to it."

JJ pauses another second before responding. "Thanks," she says softly, still not looking at him, then turns back slightly to answer the call. Aaron uses the distraction to get up and turn away from her so she doesn't see how hard he still is, then as quickly as he can he makes his way back to his locker, finishes getting dressed, gives himself a second to calm down, and leaves.

 **One day later, aka: when everything changes**

Aaron barely managed to sleep last night, his dreams filled with JJ. In half of them, her cell didn't interrupt them and they ended up grinding against each other on the bench in the locker room, and in the others, she slapped him and screamed about sexual harassment. Needless to say, he's tired today.

It's early and not many of the team are in yet, which is why it's extra surprising that Dave walks into Aaron's office with a smile on his face. Aaron raises an eyebrow. "You're here early. And suspiciously upbeat for this time of day; have you had too many coffees already?"

"Oh, Aaron. I'm simply happy to be doing my part for others," Dave grins as he sits down, and immediately Aaron is on edge.

"Dave, what have you done?"

"Well, since I came back from my retirement, I've very deliberately not taken on a lot of responsibilities, as I'm sure you know. I still teach, of course, but I wasn't particularly interested in taking on any direct reports or directly overseeing training," Dave pauses, and Aaron still doesn't get where he's going with this, so he gestures for Dave to continue.

Dave just grins like the cat that caught the canary. "Well, I've decided to make a change. I think it'd be good for me if I took on a protégé; someone who would report to me and I could oversee their train-"

Aaron can see where this is going now, and cuts him off. "Dave, we're not getting you a hot young intern, just so that you can have someone new to flirt with."

And now Aaron is really concerned, because Dave still looks smug. "No, of course not. Because the fraternization regs are very strict about relationships between a supervisor and their direct reports. However, they are _significantly_ more flexible if there's a relationship between two agents where there's no direct supervision…" he trails off and raises an eyebrow.

It takes Aaron a second; he's still trying to work out why Dave would want an intern that he deliberately couldn't flirt with, when it hits him. "You want to take over as JJ's supervisor?"

"It's already done, as of this morning. And there are a lot of people in high places that have recently been reminded of the many favors they owe me, so I suspect the flexibility of some of the fraternization regulations will suddenly be found very much in your favor. Should they need to be."

Aaron has no idea what to say. He's been hiding behind the rules for so long, that he has utterly no idea what to do now that he could, technically, ask JJ on a date.

He sees Dave look out of Aaron's office window before smiling, then standing up. "Well, now that I've fixed your only obstacle, are you finally gonna man up and ask JJ out?"

Aaron feels like something in his brain has broken at even the slightest possibility of considering that. It's been so long since he's dated anyone, and he still doesn't even know if JJ would be open to the idea, that he just sits at his desk with his mouth slightly open.

Dave laughs, and mutters "good luck", before walking out. Aaron watches him leave, except Dave doesn't turn to go into his own office; instead he walks down the steps into the bullpen, and straight over to JJ's desk, where she's clearly just sat down. He sees Dave say something to her before gesturing up at Aaron's office, and _oh shit_ Aaron has just realized that Dave is truly evil. He hasn't even had a chance to wrap his own brain around this yet, and now he's going to have to explain to JJ that Rossi is her new supervisor, and oh yeah, he's utterly in love with her. It's sure to go down well.

JJ taps lightly at his door, then swings her head in. "Rossi said you needed to speak to me in private? Is everything okay?"

Aaron clears his throat and somehow manages to invite her in, watching as she closes the door behind herself before settling into the chair opposite him. She looks a little nervous, and before he can say anything, she starts talking. "I'm so sorry about last night, I shouldn't have put you in such an uncomfortable position-"

"JJ, it's not that at all, I promise," only Aaron has no idea where to start, so he decides to just go for it. "The bureau's fraternization rules prevent any personal relationships between a supervisor and a person that directly reports to them -"

JJ cuts him off before he can go any further, clearly uncomfortable. "It's okay Hotch, I understand, you don't have to let me down gently by talking about the rules. I'm so sorry I put you in a position like that, and I understand if you don't feel like you can work with me anymore."

Aaron is officially confused for a moment, before he realizes what she's just said. She thinks that he's not interested. That he's using the rules to turn her down.

Which means she's interested in him.

"No, JJ, let me finish, please. The rules say a supervisor and direct report can't have a personal romantic relationship. But there's apparently a lot more flexibility between two agents where one doesn't supervise the other," he pauses for a second, and he can see out of the corner of his eye that she looks just as confused as he felt a moment ago. "That's why, assuming you're okay with this, from this morning you'll report to Rossi. Not me."

He plucks up the courage to look straight at her, unsure of how she'll react, still half not believing that she might feel the same way for him as he does for her. Except she still looks confused.

"Wait... I'll be reporting to Rossi now?"

He nods, watching her silently.

"Because…" Aaron sees the second that she understands, "...you want to be able to have a relationship with me?"

He stays looking straight into her eyes. "Yes." The grin that breaks out across her face gives him hope, but he needs to hear her say it. "What about you? Would you want to be able to have a relationship with me?"

She holds his gaze, and he can see a hint of mischief in her eyes, causing his heart to start beating a little faster. She just tells him to stand up, so he does. He watches as she stands up too, then walks away from him, over to the other side of the room, near his sofa. She gestures for him to follow.

Without even thinking about it, he does. He raises an eyebrow in question at her, but she just nods at the open blinds on his window looking out into the bullpen. "We needed to be out of the way so I can do this."

JJ reaches up on her tiptoes, wraps a hand around the back of Aaron's neck to pull him closer, and kisses him.

 _ **A/N:** in order to keep the M rating, the story ends here on . If you want to read the full NC-17/Explicit version, then you'll need to head over to AO3 (same username), works/6124812_


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